U.S. Officials Call Repetitive Motion Injuries an ‘Epidemic’

WASHINGTON —  Workplace injuries from repetitive motions--such as striking computer keys, fileting fish and checking out groceries--have reached “epidemic proportions” and will be the “No. 1 occupational hazard of the 1990s,” a congressional leader, federal safety and labor union officials and a university scholar agreed at a hearing Tuesday.

Repetitive motion disorders, involving severe strain on hands, wrists and other body parts, more than doubled over a recent three-year period and are expected to make up half of all occupational illnesses in the next decade, witnesses told the House Government Operations subcommittee on employment and housing.

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), chairman of the panel, accused the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of doing too little to address the problem.

“I think OSHA will have to go back to the drawing board and rethink the whole program,” he said.

But Alan C. McMillan, the acting assistant secretary of labor in charge of the agency, pointed to stepped-up workplace inspections and said: “I’m not sure that we’re terribly behind the curve.”

The subcommittee heard dramatic testimony from four women who have suffered from repetitive-motion injuries.

Pat Thompson, a disabled supermarket cashier from Philadelphia, wept about the pain from constantly twisting her wrists as she pulled grocery items across an electronic price scanner.

“I have grandchildren--how can I hold them or play with them, if I can’t use my hands?” she asked.

Rebecca Krieger, a newspaper copy editor from Lexington, Ky., testified in wrist splints that the strain of intense computer keyboard use had sapped the gripping power in her hands.

“You can’t even hug someone without hurting,” she said.

Meanwhile, Gloria Wilson--a catfish fileter from Jackson, Miss.--and Donna Bazemore, a chicken cutter from Ahoskie, N.C.--testified that their employers paid little attention to their complaints, merely suggesting that they take aspirin or similar painkillers as they became unable to work.

“Companies should not be allowed to cripple workers and then forget about them,” Wilson said.

Bazemore, who said she was forced out of her job at a Perdue Farms processing plant, now works for the Women’s Center for Economic Alternatives, helping injured workers file compensation claims.

“I want something to be done about carpal tunnel syndrome,” she said, referring to acute pain in the hands caused by pressure on a nerve that runs through a bone tunnel in the wrist.

“So many women in eastern North Carolina have developed it and are forced out of their jobs and have no place to go,” Bazemore said.

Perdue officials, who declined an invitation to testify, submitted a statement asserting that the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome at their plants “has been greatly exaggerated by the media and other interest groups.”

The firm, which said it had worked with the poultry industry to formulate corrective measures, claimed that there were only 113 cases of carpal tunnel syndrome among Perdue’s 12,000 employees in 1988.

Bazemore said that many workers “learn to work through the pain” and do not report their injuries out of fear of losing their jobs.

Lantos pursued the Perdue statement in questioning Roger Stephens, an ergonomist at OSHA who specializes in designing workplaces to reduce injuries.

“Does Congress or the media overrate the danger ahead in this field?” the congressman asked.

“Absolutely not,” Stephens said.

“Will it be the most frequent occupational hazard in the 1990s?”

“I believe it will.”

Agreeing with Lantos’ assessment that repetitive motion injuries are epidemic were Larence J. Fine of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Barbara Silverstein of the University of Michigan Center for Ergonomics and three union officials.